Kane's announcement was like a spark on dry tinder.
In the next instant, countless bolts of lightning ripped through the sky. The gentle breeze twisted into a shrieking gale, splintering into dozens of tornadoes made of slicing wind blades. Lightning and wind fused into a single, raging death storm.
Screams—raw and inhuman—were swallowed whole by the maelstrom. The air reeked of scorched flesh and hot iron blood. When the storm finally broke, the battlefield looked less like a fight and more like the aftermath of a natural disaster.
High above, Jhin and Quinn finally understood why Kaido had named Kane "Natural Disaster."
Of the once-packed ranks of pirates, only a handful were left standing. Jack, Sasaki, Foz F, and a few others endured, but their ragged breathing betrayed how much it had cost them.
"The clearing effect isn't bad," Kane muttered with a faint, satisfied smile.
"Hmph. Idiots." Foz F sneered at the bodies strewn across the ground. He hadn't lifted a finger—why waste strength when fodder could be tested first? The result left even him shaken.Strong defense… large-scale destruction on command… His eyes flicked toward Kane's dragon form with envy and unease. The mythical beasts really are monsters.
But envy quickly sharpened into calculation. His gaze slithered toward Jack, Sasaki, and the others—his real opponents. They were thinking the same, each weighing when to strike, none daring to be the first.
The air thickened with tension.
Jack broke it.
"Hmph. Cowards." His massive frame shifted, muscles bulging, skin stretching. With a snarl, he transformed into his orc form. Two enormous scimitars glinted black with armament Haki. With a ground-shaking leap, he launched skyward like a cannonball.
"Break for me!!"
His blades blurred, hacking the same spot on Kane's dragon body again and again, Haki tearing through the air with shrill whistles. Kane's pupils shrank—his skin, thick as steel, was splitting under the strikes.
So this is the prodigy of the Beasts Pirates.
Jack was only eighteen, yet he bore the blood of a fish-man and the power of the ancient mammoth fruit. His strength rivaled anyone but Jhin and Quinn themselves. If not for Kane's sudden rise, Jack would have soon stood among the Beasts' top names.
Kane's colossal form shrank, scales giving way to sinew as he switched to his orc form—leaner, faster, better for close combat.
"That's just what I wanted." Jack's eyes gleamed as his own body surged into mammoth form, tusks like spears, a trunk armored in black Haki. He charged, trunk raised high.
"Trunk Strike!"
The blow descended with a thunderclap, compressing the very air into a rippling white shockwave.
Boom!
The strike smashed into Kane mid-transformation. The impact was monstrous, like being rammed by a warship at full speed. Kane's body was hurled back, a blurred afterimage crashing into the rock wall with bone-jarring force.
Dust plumed. Rubble rained.
From the Skull Dome above, Quinn shook his head. "That kid's finished. Jack's strike isn't something you walk away from."
Jhin smirked. "Idiot. Use your Observation Haki."
"Who're you calling an idiot, you sadist freak?" Quinn snapped, puffing himself up and rattling off titles: "Best scientist of MADS—second only to Vegapunk! Apex of body modification! Living culmination of bio-weaponry—"
Down below, Runti seethed. "Damn it! That bastard Jack! My brother's revenge isn't settled yet!" Her brother Page One, still reeling from the earlier storm, would have fallen if not for his ancient Spinosaurus form.
"Forget it, sister," Page One tugged at her sleeve. "We can't take on Jack."
Runti gritted her teeth, then pulled him close, rubbing her cheek against his until he squirmed. "Fine. I'll listen—for now."
Foz F's smile was venomous. "Sasaki. How about we thin out the siblings first?"
"That's just what I want." Sasaki's greedy eyes gleamed as he transformed.
"You bastards wanna fight?!" Runti's temper snapped. She shifted into her Pachycephalosaur form, roaring, "I'll headbutt you all into the dirt!"
Page One stepped forward beside her, Spinosaurus form unleashed, the siblings standing firm against the coming storm.
None of them noticed Jack, still poised and wary—even with his back turned.
The ground trembled. Rubble shifted. A dragon's claw burst through the rock, gouging deep into stone.
"Not bad…" Kane's voice rumbled through the dust. His figure emerged slowly, one hand braced against the wall, the other clutching his chest. His body bore Jack's wounds—slashes from the scimitars, the crushing blow of the trunk.
But the blood had already clotted. The pain faded, muscles knitting back together in minutes.
He raised his head. His lips curved into a feral grin.
"Jack…" His voice thundered. "It's my turn."